Male Pattern Baldness Treatments

In recent years, medicine has made incredible breakthroughs in the treatment of men’s hair loss. With the introduction of 5-alpha-reductace inhibitors, such as Propecia, men living with unsightly hair loss is no longer completely inevitable. For the first time, it’s also finally possible to stop or at least slow down the progression of hair loss, as well as replace lost hair through restoration surgery, with natural results.

Unfortunately, while some hair loss treatments have been proved to be effective, there are many on the market today that provide little or no results.

You’ve likely seen commercials on tv or seen ads in magazines for hair loss treatments that claim miracles for men dealing with balding, but if those products aren’t approved by the FDA or recommended by the American Hair Loss Association, it’s probably safe to say that you would just be wasting your time and money with them.

They key to having successful treatment of hair loss, is by attacking the problem as early as possible. As soon as you start to notice unusual hair loss, it’s crucial that you take action and begin a treatment. The two most widely used and recommended treatments are Finasteride and Minoxidil.

Finasteride is the generic name, for such brand name medicines as Propecia and Proscar. Finasteride was actually not even orginally intended to be used as a balding treatment, in fact, it was developed to treat enlarged prostate glands. However, when patients began taking the drug, a side effect turned out to be hair growth. Once this was discovered, the makers of Finasteride began to develope finasteride as the first pill taken to treat male pattern baldness. At the time, the liquid solution, known as Minoxidil was already on the market. After being approved by the FDA in the late 1990′s, finasteride was available on the market and showed to be the first medicine in history to effectively treat male pattern baldness in the majority of those who took it. The reason why it’s so successful, is that it has the ability to inhibit 5-alpha-reductase, which is the enzyme that changes testosterone into a more powerful androgen dihydrotestosterone or DHT. When taken daily, a 1mg dose of Finasteride can lower DHT levels in a man’s scalp by over half. During clinical trials, over 80% of men who took the drug found a stop to their hair loss, and well over half found that their lost hair had begun to grow back, as well. The American Hair Loss Association strongly supports finasteride and says it should be the first choice for men who want to combat against male pattern baldness.

The other popular hair loss fighting drug, Minoxidil has been around a little while longer, and was the first medicine approved by the FDA for treatment of male pattern baldness. Like Finasterride, Minoxidil was also originally designed to serve a different purpose other than fighting hair loss. When Minoxidil was first introduced, it was in pill form, and it was aimed to treat high blood pressure. However, as soon as patients began taking it to treat their blood pressure, they noticed hair growth in unusual places as a side effect. Researchers decided to make the drug in a liquid form, rather than a pill, and applying it to the patient’s head. While it’s success rate isn’t as high as Finasteride’s, at the time, Minoxidil was quite a revolutionary discovery. While still not proving to be extremely effective in most patients, The American Hair Loss Association still supports the drug, especially for those who don’t respond well to Finasteride.